Backswing rethink

For quite a few weeks, just prior to a holiday, I'd been battling with thoughts  about my backswing - where to set it, how to regulate length, direction, wrist cock, etc, etc. And, of course, I'd been playing badly - an understatement - atrociously in fact.

Then, one dark night, on holidays in a foreign land, it hit me, the solution to my problem. Here it is:

Let the follow through determine the direction and positioning and everything else in the backswing.

In other words, forget the backswing altogether (perhaps except for the initial takeaway) and concentrate on how to follow through. Generally, this will be a thought like 'swing out to one o'clock' - especially with driver. Or it might be 'hold on tighter and don't release' - to hit a fade. These kinds of thoughts.

Focusing on the follow through will allow the unconscious mind to determine the kind of backswing that is needed. And while the backswing solution is essentially counter-intuitive, the unconscious mind is well equiped to handle the counter-intuitive.

The unconscious mind is actually much smarter and quicker than the conscious mind - at least it is in my case. Why not let it do its thing?